Victory of Hope over Despair
Editorial
April 2023, volume 47, No 4

Do you believe in miracles?

In May 2005, the mighty AC Milan considered to have the best defence in the world and had the best player in the world (Kaka), met with Liverpool Football Club, who were thinking how in the blue hell they were the finalists of the toughest football competition in the world, The Champions League. For those who don’t know, The Champions League final has as much viewership, if not more, as a FIFA World Cup final. Everyone in the world, except Liverpool fans, believed that Milan would blow Liverpool away. To be honest, some Liverpool fans believed it too. And they were right. Milan didn’t just blow Liverpool away. Milan took a hammer and bludgeoned Liverpool into oblivion for daring to even be in the finals. For daring to look at ‘THEIR’ trophy. For daring to pose a threat. For daring to stand against them. For daring to Romanticize Football. Milan served Liverpool a dose of the world’s ‘truth’, that Liverpool deserved nothing other than this humiliation. They tore Liverpool apart with such ruthlessness that regaining normalcy seemed a distant dream. Players have gone on record and said they were already depressed before the 1st half ended. AC Milan-3/Liverpool-0. The first half ends. AC Milan’s savagery and systematic dismantling of Liverpool FC in the first half reminds me of our current political and social scenario. AC Milan being the Party in power. Liverpool FC being the Constitution.

Every aspect of dissent, people who question authority, who want to have transparency, who want to uphold the values enshrined in our Constitution, are being plummeted into oblivion by the Party. Many have been arrested and slapped with draconian laws. Judges are afraid of what a lawyer is tweeting about them. And hatemongers who incite violence are called for book launches and made ministers. Hate is being given more power so that hate can rule over us. So that hate can determine our decisions and our votes. Not rationality. The strength of their squad is humongous. And the money is overflowing.

Back in Istanbul, before the second half began, the world witnessed an anomaly. Everyone thought that it would be the Milan supporters who would be in high spirits, but it was the Liverpool supporters who made all the noise. A deafening ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ echoed around the Ataturk Stadium. Supporters say they didn’t know why they started singing it. They just didn’t want to feel gloomy. They didn’t sing it for inspiration. They didn’t sing it to motivate the players. They didn’t sing it to turn the match around and win. They were just tired of the doom and gloom. They were tired of the world telling them that they should know better. They were tired of living in fear. Fear of losing the final. They just sang to let the world know that they were there. Backing their team. Irrespective of the result. This reminded me of Ravish Kumar’s speech when he won the prestigious Magsaysay Award, ‘Not all battles are fought for victory—some are fought to tell the world that someone was there on the battlefield.’ The Liverpool supporters let the world know they were not leaving their team behind. Not at this moment when the team needs them the most. We are Liverpool. And This Means More. The players took the field. In an interview, Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard said that the plan was just to score a goal to get some respect back. They weren’t thinking about anything else. Just one goal. That’s it. Around 54 minutes, Steven Gerrard, who rose up like a phoenix from the ashes of the 1st half, headed home the 1st goal. Captain Fantastic. Football Supernova. He rallied the supporters as if the team couldn’t do without them. And they couldn’t. He gestured for the supporters to be more vocal. To be more defiant. And defiance there was. The supporters in the first half were merely spectators watching Gladiators play in the Colosseum. But now every Liverpool supporter was a Gladiator. When the clock hit 60 minutes, the score was level. AC Milan 3—Liverpool 3. There was a match to be played still. Because the scores were level. Liverpool had not done anything to win the game yet. But they had done everything to win over the world. Forget the world. They had won over their conquerors. Liverpool won the match on penalties. Liverpool became the champions.

Liverpool is a city of immigrants who believe in socialism. They identify as Scousers, not English. They don’t like England much. In 1989, 96 football fans went to watch a match. Never to return home. The Hillsborough disaster is considered to be one of the worst sporting disasters in the world. Ninety-six people were dead. The establishment, as well as the police, blamed the fans for ‘hooliganism’. Inquiry reports were published, absolving the establishment/authorities of any responsibility.

Even the media blamed the people who were dead, calling them drunk and violent. The leading newspaper in the country, The Sun, inscribes ‘THE TRUTH’ over the entire front page. A sitting MP was the ‘source’ for the article, which demonized the victims. Sounds familiar, right? For the dead, the trauma ended then and there. For the living, the fight had just started. The fight for the truth. The fight for justice. The city of Liverpool has boycotted The Sun for their lies for over three decades now, and since 2017, The Sun is banned from entering Anfield (the home stadium of Liverpool FC) for press coverage. A city banned and boycotted a national newspaper for spreading hate and lies. In 2012, the Prime Minister, as well as the South Yorkshire Police Department, apologized for the gross miscarriage of justice. But the families were not seeking an apology. They wanted the truth to come out. And it did.

In 2016, a jury found that the 96 fans were unlawfully killed due to crushing. The police chief’s actions amounted to ‘gross negligence’, and both the Police and the ambulance service caused or contributed to the loss of life by error or omission. It took 27 years and was the longest trial in British legal history. Anne Williams, who lost her son Kevin in the Hillsborough disaster, when asked about the injustice she faced, said, ‘They’re wearing me down, but I’ll wear them down before they wear me down.’

The Preamble to India’s Constitution says that we give to ourselves the Constitution. It’s time that we rally our own version of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ to let the Constitution know that we are here. It should be deafening. And it should echo around our country mercilessly, as mercilessly as the government today is attacking the Constitution.

Don’t sing it just for inspiration. Don’t sing it just for motivation. Don’t sing it just to win. Sing because we are just tired of the doom and gloom. We are tired of the status quo. We are tired of the state telling us that dissenters should know better. Sing because you don’t want to live in fear anymore. Sing because you don’t want hate instilled in you anymore. Sing to let the world know that we are here. That we won’t give in to hate.

And you’ll never walk alone.

Shiv Kanungo is an actor (Raanjhanaa, Scam 1992, The Whistleblower and others) and also an Indian, an Odia Indian living in Bombay who is a Liverpool Fan, an Odia Indian married to a Malayali woman.